This is the kind of week that transforms Omaha from a flyover city to the epicenter of something truly exciting. A bar is counting Jell-O shots by school affiliation somewhere along the river, hotel rates are negotiated weeks in advance, and downtown fills with team colors. The College World Series is that. It’s messy, boisterous, sentimental, and surprisingly difficult to forget if you’ve ever been there in June.
Eight teams from across the nation arrived at Charles Schwab Field this week to begin the 2026 Men’s College World Series, each with the burden of a full season behind them. The two four-team double-elimination groups that feed into a best-of-three championship series make the bracket appear clean on paper, but nothing about what takes place inside that stadium seems clean. This level of baseball, played by 20-year-olds with everything on the line, has a way of creating moments that seem exaggerated, almost theatrical.
This year, the SEC’s control over the tournament is unavoidable. Depending on which fan base you ask, the fact that five of the eight remaining teams are from the Southeastern Conference has generated both admiration and mild anxiety. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Georgia, Alabama, and another SEC program are all present. It’s worth considering whether that is a reflection of the conference’s actual dominance in college baseball or something more structural, like recruiting pipelines, NIL funds, or facility expenditures. Most likely a little bit of each.
And there’s the tale that no one anticipated. Jabe Boroff, a player ESPN has already dubbed “Jabe Ruth,” though it’s unclear if that moniker helps or annoys him, drove Troy University, an Alabama mid-major program, all the way to Omaha. An underdog making this trip has an almost remedial quality. Troy’s presence here serves as a reminder that the College World Series sometimes rewards the team that just catches fire at the perfect time. The series functions best when it isn’t totally predictable.
Given the program’s age and history, it seems statistically odd that West Virginia attended the CWS for the first time this year. The most well-known graduate of the school at the moment, Pat McAfee, arrived in Omaha and launched a small-scale media campaign against Rocco’s, a bar well-known in the area for its Jell-O shot competition, after the general manager reportedly showed him neither kindness nor tolerance. Nevertheless, McAfee made a sizable donation, was quietly acknowledged on social media a few hours later, and made the entire event into a three-minute television segment. Now, that’s how it operates. Subplots that follow the main games like smoke are created by the CWS.
This week, the weather has had its own personality. Ahead of Saturday’s games, a storm with quarter-sized hail and 60-mph winds passed through eastern Nebraska, serving as a reminder that June in the Midwest operates on its own terms regardless of the schedule.
Since 1950, Omaha has hosted the College World Series annually, which is a long time for any city to hold onto something. Walking around downtown during tournament week gives you the impression that Omaha has developed its identity in part around this event; the contract, which runs through 2035, is more than just a commercial agreement; it is a civic pillar. Which of these eight teams will reduce the proverbial whatever it is that baseball teams reduce is still up in the air. However, the city is watching, the games are being played, and someone is ordering a Jell-O shot in WVU gold somewhere.
